National Rehabilitation Hospital Gala

Shahin Mafi and Mona St. Leger co-chaired the National Rehabilitation Hospital’s Nov. 10 Gala Victory Awards at the Organization of American States. The evening featured a buffet of North and South American specialties as well as silent and live auctions which included a Thanksgiving dinner for 10 provided by Windows Catering Company, an air combat mission and a week for two at the Half Moon in Jamaica. This year’s recipients of the Victory Awards celebrating exceptional strength and courage in the face of physical adversity were Cheryl Douglas, a quadruple amputee as the result of a rare bacterial infection, and Tim Strachan, who suffered a spinal core injury during a beach accident before his senior year in high school. He praised the staff at NRH for instilling “the belief that you can move on despite a disability.” He went on to say “you give a gift.”